Bulls crush the Reds

The Bulls ran eight tries past the Reds to record a comprehensive 61-8 Super Rugby win at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

The Bulls ran eight tries past the Reds to record a comprehensive 61-8 Super Rugby win at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

It was a convincing display by the hosts, who dominated the injury-plagued defending champions to notch up their second bonus-point win of the season.

Morne Steyn had a good day with the boot, slotting all of his eight attempts at goal - a much needed confidence booster for the Springbok following a poor kicking display in the 29-23 Blues defeat a fortnight ago.

Further adding to the Reds woes are injuries sustained to hooker Saia Faingaa and centre Jono Lance, who before going down in the 56th minute was arguably the Reds best performer from the match.

Both teams took to the match with attacking intentions although it was the South Africans who made the most of their opportunities to lead 16-3 at half-time courtesy of a try to Bulls full-back Zane Kirchner and 11 points through the boot of Steyn.

The Bulls continued their attacking ascendency after the break, but this time the second-half was horribly one-sided - Jacques Potgieter's powerful running and great hands from Steyn put centre Wynand Olivier over just after the re-start.

Lock Flip van der Merwe bulldozed over, then Potgieter scored the try of the match as he burst clear from the halfway line and held off the cover defence to secure the bonus point.

Replacement scrum-half Jano Vermaak sniped over from a ruck in the 66th minute, before flank CJ Stander scored from a rolling maul six minutes later.

Replacement fly-half Louis Fouche's conversion put the Bulls' score past the half-century mark and the replacements continued to tear into the Reds, with centre JJ Engelbrecht and Bjorn Basson scoring tries in the last five minutes.

It was the second time in five years that the Reds had been hammered at Loftus following a record 92-3 defeat in 2007.